From inflation to the border with the pandemic and the fate of Americans held overseas in between, President Biden’s words and actions make clear he doesn’t really care what you think or the challenges you are facing. The radical progressive agenda is paramount no matter what, but fortunately Americans are starting to notice.
Earlier this week, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas appeared before the Senate and was completely unable to answer basic questions about the ongoing border crisis. How many illegal aliens have crossed the border? He didn’t have the figure. How many migrants with coronavirus have been let in? No idea. How many children are in cages at facilities on the border? He objected to the idea that they were even in cages. “Senator, I respectfully disagree with your use of the term cages,” he said. “Fine, you can disagree with it,” Republican Senator Ted Cruz pressed him. “How many children have been in the Biden cages? I’ve been to the Biden cages. I’ve seen the Biden cages. How many children have you detained at the Donna tent facility in the cages you built to hold kids?” Secretary Mayorkas refused to answer. How many women have been sexually assaulted on the trip to the United States? Didn’t know. How many children? Couldn’t say.
Nor would he say what Vice President Harris’ role is when it comes to border security and even her relationship with Secretary Mayorkas himself. “So what is she doing, exactly?” Republican Senator Josh Hawley asked. “You said she’s not the borders czar. That’s not her role. We’re wrong about that. She’s not doing anything like that. She’s doing something very different, is what your testimony is, but you’re not actually consulting with her on any policy. So what is it that she’s doing, exactly?” “Senator, as I have repeatedly testified, she is focused on addressing the root causes of irregular migration in the context of the migration channels,” the Secretary responded. “How’s that been going?” Hawley parried back. “That is a — We are advancing considerably, and in fact, I am contributing to that effort,” explained Secretary Mayorkas, practically disagreeing with himself. Regarding the effort overall, the Secretary incredibly gave himself an “A.” “I’m a tough grader on myself,” he said. “And I give myself an ‘A’ for effort, investment in mission, and support of our workforce.” No mention of why they completely maligned border agents for supposedly using whips on migrants less than two months ago. I guess that’s what they mean by “support.”
After this disastrous appearance, the political talking heads on Fox News including Karl Rove pondered why Secretary Mayorkas couldn’t answer basic questions. Were they hiding the truth because the numbers were so bad? Did his team do him a disservice and not prepare him properly for the appearance? Sadly, the answer is a lot simpler and more obvious to me: He didn’t prepare and didn’t answer because the entire Biden Administration itself simply doesn’t care. These numbers — horrible as they are considering 164,000 people were apprehended at the border alone in October and that was actually a decline from previous months — are of no interest because the goal is not to control or reduce border crossings in any way. On the contrary, progressives believe it is only a matter of time until some form of blanket amnesty is instituted and they seek as many new voters as possible. Thus, they don’t care about the ramifications of kids in cages, women and children assaulted on the journey here, or even how many are coming. It’s irrelevant to their larger goal.
Rampant inflation and the supply chain crisis, it seems, is equally irrelevant to them, despite Biden’s recent claims he was focused on it just last week. Over the summer, they were bragging that Fourth of July BBQs would cost Americans $.16 less. Yes, a savings of less than four whole nickels. Last month, Press Secretary Jen Psaki described it as “the tragedy of the treadmill” delayed. Liz Reynolds, special assistant to the president for manufacturing and economic development, told the National Governors Association, “You won’t be able to get the jacket in 15 colors, but you will be able to get the jacket.” Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm flat out laughed at the idea the Administration had any plan to combat rapidly rising gas and oil prices.
It was all fun and games as they say until we learned they were warned about the threat of inflation from none other than Steven Rattner, a key economic advisor to former President Barack Obama and a man who has donated thousands of dollars to Democrats. “The original sin was the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, passed in March. The bill — almost completely unfunded — sought to counter the effects of the Covid pandemic by focusing on demand-side stimulus rather than on investment,” Mr. Rattner wrote in a guest essay for The New York Times. “That has contributed materially to today’s inflation levels.” Mr. Rattner continued, “They can’t say they weren’t warned — notably by Larry Summers, a former Treasury secretary and my former boss in the Obama administration, and less notably by many others, including me. We worried that shoveling an unprecedented amount of spending into an economy already on the road to recovery would mean too much money chasing too few goods.”
One would think a change in course might be in order, but the Biden Administration’s plan even after these warnings have been fully realized is more of the same, much more. White House national economic director, Brian Deese appeared on the Sunday shows this past weekend arguing that the key to fixing inflation was the $1.75 trillion Build Back Better plan, the framework of which was established long before the spike in prices. “By providing affordable child care, affordable elder care, we’re going to help get those people back into the workforce, which will reduce price pressures while also reducing the practical costs that Americans face,” Mr. Deese explained. “That’s the case we’re going to make and that’s the case why delivering right now for the American people is the right thing to do.” Mr. Rattner strongly disagreed in his essay, citing research from the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget that suggests the plan would increase the deficit by $800 billion over the next five years. In short, the package as proposed “front-loads spending while tax revenues arrive over a decade,” “exacerbating inflationary pressures.” Mr. Rattner suggested the administration adopts “fiscal discipline,” including potential tax increases. I certainly disagree with that, but his underlying point remains the same.
Unfortunately, Mr. Rattner is still screaming into a hurricane because they don’t care in the least what you pay for groceries and everything else. Progressive and more moderate members of the House recently agreed to await the Congressional Budget Office’s official scoring of the Build Back Better bill to ensure it didn’t add to the deficit. Before the score was even released, the Biden Administration was already pushing to pass the bill whatever the result, the deficit and the potential for more inflation be damned. A mid-level White House staff member claimed the CBO lacks the “experience” to properly score the bill in the first place. White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich tweeted a quote from the staff member, “Amid reports the WH privately warned the CBO score will show BBB is not fully paid for, @AndrewJBates46 says: ‘There’s wide agreement CBO doesn’t have the experience analyzing revenue amounts gained from cracking down on wealthy tax cheats who are taking advantage of honest taxpayers.’” Pennsylvania Representative Conor Lamb concurred, tweeting, “appreciate the CBO’s advice, but they’ve long undercounted the tax gap. Without BBB, there will be TRILLIONS in unpaid taxes this decade. Unpaid by the rich, because it’s more work to go after them & they know it. I’ll vote to end this with BBB, whether CBO counts it right or not.”
The CBO released the score last night, showing the bill will increase the deficit by close to $400 billion. The Democrats in the House pushed forward and are planning a vote on it today. In other words, they don’t care what any of the experts on the matter say.
The continuing coronavirus pandemic reveals a similar, troubling pattern. Late last year and earlier this year, we were told by both President Joe Biden and key team members that mandating vaccinations wasn’t the role of the Federal government. In August, he completely reversed course and created an entirely new government power to issue mandates based on an occupational health and safety law, as if coronavirus was a feature of the workplace and not a part of our lives, period. This new mandate would require employers to fire existing employees based on their healthcare choices, even front-line workers who protected the country and ensured the economy still functioned throughout the pandemic. Those who we once called heroes were now completely expendable, but the Biden Administration doesn’t care. They are so obsessed with mandates that the definition of fully vaccinated is likely to change as well, from two shots to three. This means millions of people like myself that were skeptical they even needed the vaccine for whatever reason, but went ahead and received it anyway, hoping it would help return to normal, are going to be forced to get yet another dose. Vaccinated today, but not tomorrow. Europe is already moving in that direction, and the good Dr. Anthony Fauci recently said, “I happen to believe as an immunologist and infectious disease person that a third-shot boost for an mRNA [vaccine]…should be part of the actual standard regimen, where a booster isn’t a luxury.” In other words, they will happily force you to comply to as many shots as they deem necessary, even if they make it up as they go along because they don’t care what you think or why.
I could go on. Recently, the family members of hostages held overseas wrote the President a letter claiming his administration wasn’t doing enough to bring their loved ones home. Instead, they were “bogged down in burdensome processes or policy debates that keep our loved ones from coming home and keep us uninformed of what you can and cannot do to help us.” “We need to be shown that the promises of your administration to prioritize the return of our family members are not empty. Now is the time for action. Now we need you to bring our fellow Americans home,” the letter continued. It’s not just hostages. They don’t care about dead soldiers either. The families of the thirteen service members killed in the attack in Kabul before our ignominious retreat only received letters from Biden in the last few days. Their loved ones were killed over two months ago in the highest casualty event in years. Nor have they received any information from anyone in the administration about who carried out the attack or what’s being done about it because, at the risk of repeating myself, the Biden Administration doesn’t care.
Fortunately, people around the country are starting to take notice, not that we can do anything about it. We’ve already discussed how the President’s approval ratings have plummeted and aren’t likely to change, but some key data points inside recent polls might be even more revealing. A Morning Consult poll just this week found that only 39% of voters said President Biden “cares about people like me,” compared to 53% in May. The share of respondents who described him as “compassionate” similarly plunged, from 61% in May to 47% now. Likewise, the percentage that describe him as “reckless” and “thin-skinned” increased 10 points, from 32% to 42%. These are all big swings in completely the wrong direction. Despite the President’s talking points, people can tell from his actions: He simply doesn’t care and his administration reflects that. Progressives are driving his agenda, and whether or not it connects directly with the issues the average voter is facing is completely irrelevant.
This is a sad state of affairs, but unfortunately one that is likely to continue for the foreseeable future. It takes a strong leader to buck their base, especially one that believes their ideology is ascendent, and Biden certainly isn’t it. In fact, only 41% say he is capable of leading at all. Think about that for a moment and then remember he will be in office for more than another three years.
Confessions of a Conservative Atheist 